Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 January 1970 00:59:59
So that is the second day of Lent drawing to a close, and a beautiful spring day it has been too.
Yesterday was the perfect start to my determination to channel some of the energy (is that the right word? Possibly the opposite!) that I put into the Ship of Fools into actually taking time to read my Bible. As I said, yesterday morning I got so engrossed in the Psalm 63 reading in preparation for Bible Study that I went on and read the whole of the background passage from 2 Samuel to remind myself of David's story. I read on a bit this morning, too.
Bible Study was great. A small number of us had decided that we wanted to think a bit more about our Bibles during Lent and decided to follow a course called “Spiritual Hunger”. In some ways it struck a chord for all of us so it seemed an appropriate choice. The plan was to discuss for an hour, but we talked and talked until we simply had to go to bed! The topic was hungering and thirsting for God, having God and yet seeking him, discussing times of great yearning and times of satisfaction in our spiritual journey. We had to select a verse with which we identified most closely, and for me it was this: “Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings - my soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me” (Psalm 63, vv7&8 NIV) although I realised that sometimes I am so determined to convince myself and those around me that I am strong, that I don't turn immediately to God and let him uphold me, I try too long to struggle on alone. We discussed too how peoples' experience of God in the “desert times” varies so, and how perplexing it can be to try to come to terms with it, sometimes even feeling guilty for feeling God's presence so strongly when others cannot.
Today, as agreed at Bible Study, I read Psalm 63 again, this time using a different version. I also spent a quarter of an hour focussing on the reading on Fish.co.uk, thinking about “The eye is the lamp of the body” and “No servant can serve two masters”. Somehow it seemed to tie in, and certainly prompted my thinking about how often I serve God through my everyday life, and vice versa.
I was pretty tired today - the Glandular Fever taking its toll still as I start my first full week back at school. I was very relieved when a colleague and friend offered to take the cover lesson which I had been timetabled to do, which gave me a chance to relax in the staffroom, catch up with a bit of paperwork, and do my daily visit to the Ship. I visited the internet again from school later in the day, just finding something to pass the time while my group were happily doing a spelling programme on the computer without needing my support at all, and it was then that I came here and discovered the Gospel of John Wiblog, which provided me with yet more reading, and very interesting reading too as the first one was far from easy to follow. I loved the suggestion about reading it aloud as I sat in a silent computer room surrounded by thirteen-year-olds - but puzzling it through was a good challenge for that lesson when I would otherwise be hiding the Ship of Fools window behind my lesson plans and worksheets!